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﻿Etienne de Durand, the director of the Security Studies Center at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris, notes that even reaching 2 percent wouldn't necessarily solve problems. For one thing, 2 percent of how much?"If you have to rebuild a full spectrum military, 2 percent is not enough unless you've got a raging economy," he said. Part of the problem, de Durand asserts, is that the United States, the United Kingdom and France have encouraged European nations to build forces geared Nike Air Force All Red

toward expeditionary missions such as Afghanistan sending troops far away from national borders. Once the point of military spending was divorced from defending the homeland, spending on manpower Air Max Tn 2014 and weapons became optional for many countries. When budgets got tight, it was easy to shift tax money to social programs, such as higher education and national health care. European politicians were happy to grab that option. Germany is perhaps the best example of that. Europe's most populous nation, with its strongest economy, Germany spends a relative pittance on defense, and a recent internal study concluded the German military is only "conditionally ready.

Ukrainian troops in Crimea fired no shots to oppose the Russian takeover. Many joined the Russian army; the rest left for the Ukrainian mainland. Kathleen McInnis, a security expert at London's prestigious Chatham House research center, said Poland, a NATO ally, was the only European nation with a strong program of military spending. That's driven by worries about Russian aggression triggered by the invasion of Georgia in 2008. Not even the United Kingdom, whose prime minister, David Cameron, pledged to continue his nation's commitment to defense, can be counted on, she said. She noted Cameron also has made a political commitment to spending more on social programs. "If that's his priority, where does defense really fit?" she asked, noting that budgets remain tight across Europe and the financial crisis hasn't yet ended.

months. When the German Defense Ministry announced it would send weapons to Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State, the follow through became what German media described as slapstick: few transport helicopters and planes were in working order, and a contingent of trainers was stuck for days in Bulgaria while their plane was fixed. Ukraine has become the cautionary tale of a European nation that neglected defense. In the past five years, the government spent just one tenth of what its military leaders deemed necessary to maintain its force, officially reasoning, "Ukraine has no enemies who might invade. "When Russia made its move on Crimea last March, the Ukrainian military was shambolic: Troops were untrained, vehicles broken and without fuel, and arms were too few. In Kiev, officials admitted they couldn't stop a Russian advance. Their hope was that Russian President Vladimir Putin would change his mind.